Fantastic Feasts and Where to Find Them: Zucchini Cakes

Hello one and all and welcome to yet another Fantastic Feasts and Where to Find Them! After the success of the infamous Deeper’N’Ever’Pie, I’ve received several demands requests from my friends to post some moar Redwall recipes. Now I did not go all-out and scour the official Redwall Cookbook this time around, but instead I wanted to try something new, something that is more of an inspired-tribute than anything else…

So without further preamble, here’s what I made this week in the “style” of typical Redwall feast-worthy foods: zucchini cakes!

Throw in some sausages with your zucchini for a full meal :3

As I mentioned before, this is not a real Redwall dish; but it is inspired by skilly and duff which — from the looks of a few Redwall recipes — is something like a cross between a Spanish torta, a fritter, and a latke. So I figured it had to be some sort of shredded vegetable fruit mix with breadcrumbs and some kind of binder such as egg and or cheese. I decided to use both eggs and cheese, with some breadcrumbs, and garlic, some very finely minced onions, and lot’s and lot’s of zucchini…

And it created a rather lovely, light, summer-inspired dish that can make either a good appetizer or, if you eat several, a pretty nice vegetarian-friendly main course. Would the beasts of Redwall abbey enjoy such a dish? Definitely, it’s refreshing, easy to whip up, and the numbers are flexible and able to easily adjust for big crowds; this would be a simple go-to recipe when it comes to feeding a huge feast hall filled to the rafters.

Procedure:

1 Zucchini — small or large, depending on the size of the zucchini will influence the amount of the rest of the ingredients

1/3 Cup of Italian bread crumbs — more or less depending on the size of the zucchini

Okay first of all, you’ll need to rinse your zucchini then cut off the ends. And then it’s time to whip out your handy dandy cheese grater and grate it. Until all of it is gone and smashed into oblivion.

But also be careful about your fingers; it always sucks to cut yourself on a cheese grater of all things =(

You should now have a lovely pile of zucchini — but we’re not done messing with it yet. Zucchinis have a lot of water and you’ll want to try to dry it out as best as you can. Soooo, get a clump of zucchini, stick it into a clean dishtowel, and squeeze it over the sink (Sorry no picture, both of my hands were rather occupied). Don’t panic when a lot of slightly green water seeps out; that’s supposed to happen and is a good sign that you won’t have to suffer with watery batter!

(Please excuse me, my hands were kind of wet so I had to stop taking pictures at this point in the process…)

Now you can put your somewhat-drained-out zucchini into a big mixing bowl and start pouring in the rest of your ingredients! Also a helpful tip for those tackling this recipe, you’ll want to eye-ball it and start by adding things in small amounts. For instance, I started with 1/3 cup of bread crumbs, then added my garlic, onions, and all of my cheese, and one egg. Mixed it around a bit… Seemed a little dry, so I added another egg; that seemed a little watery so I threw in some more bread crumbs.

You want a consistent batter that will clump together; something that isn’t too watery or too dry, something that is in-between those two.

When your batter is ready it’s time for frying!

Get your desired frying pan nice and ready with plenty of olive oil (Note this is not the right kind of frying olive oil wahhh) and let it heat up. Once the pan is hot, start plopping in portions of the batter into the oil and let it fry. Also to help these little guys along, I’d advise you smash them down a bit into the pan so that they’re an even consistency…

Fry them up for two to three minutes per side, or until golden brown, then turn over onto a plate and you’re ready to serve!

:3 There really isn’t much more to it besides that, and well, eating them.

Fenrir

A would-be anthropologist, writer, food historian, and professional glutton hoping to combine fandom with her love of food. Ever wondered what a nug tasted like? Is butterbeer alcoholic? If you've asked such questions and are already drooling at the thought of a big old plate of lembas bread, then you're in the right place

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Fenrir

A would-be anthropologist, writer, food historian, and professional glutton hoping to combine fandom with her love of food. Ever wondered what a nug tasted like? Is butterbeer alcoholic? If you've asked such questions and are already drooling at the thought of a big old plate of lembas bread, then you're in the right place